Wind Energy and renewable energy blog

Renewables Advisory Board faces the Axe

The abolition of the Renewables Advisory Board was announced this week, alongside 191 other UK Quangos.

In what has been described as the ‘Quango bonfire’ another 118 bodies will be merged and 171 ’substantially reformed’. 50 bodies to be affected are within the Environment Department.

The cutting of the Quangos (quasi non-governmental organisations) has been a headline grabber for the UK coalition government since they started their campaigning over a year ago and featured strongly in the Tory manifesto.

The Renewables Advisory Board (RAB) advises the government on a range of renewable energy issues

New Renewable Energy Planning Statement Released

After over a year of preparation, the Government has released a new UK national policy statement on renewable energy.

The statement is one of a series of NPS (National Planning Statements) documents intended to guide the new Infrastructure Planning Committee (IPC) in coming to decisions on large scale infrastructure projects. The statements will set out criteria on national need, benefits and impacts. With the exception of the NPS for airports and nuclear power stations, sites are not identified for specific proposals.

The Renewable Energy NPS applies specifically to biomass and onshore wind energy projects comprising 50 Megawatts + and to offshore wind energy projects, including the substations and new overhead power lines.

Conservatives Confirm Stance on Large Infrastructure Projects

Shadow energy minister Charles Hendry MP has today confirmed the Conservative’s stance on proposals for the new Infrastructure Planning Committee (IPC).

Hendry wrote to the Department of Climate Change stating that the main concern arising from the current planning system is the inherent delay which has provided no certainty or guaranteed timeframe in which applications are decided. “Whilst we are wholly supportive of the principle of speeding up the process, we remain concerned that the IPC offers no recourse to the public to express their views given that decisions are made by an unelected quango” he said.